After looking at the calendar, and ticking off all the places we want to visit, we decided we’d better head get a move on and head to Hevenor this morning.

We had a beautiful day for traveling and made Hevenor in a little over an hour. Al anchored in front of the pretty waterfall at the head of the inlet.

Big mistake!

It was about mid-tide on a spring tide that was going down. Pretty soon rocks started to appear uncomfortably close. Then the wind piped up, gusting to 35 knots. Then the 10 ft. alarm went off. Time to move. Al went up to pull the anchor, while I manned the helm. Then the alarm went off again and we were in 8.2 feet of water. It seemed like Al was taking forever pulling that anchor, but eventually he got it up and we were out in safe depths again. We re-anchored in the lee of a point, where we had spotted a wolf sitting on a rock years ago. We don’t have the waterfall to look at, but we’ll spend a much less stressful night.

It was sprinkling when I set out on my paddle this morning. I headed out to the entrance to Newcombe, but before I got very far I spotted this pair of Loons.

I recognized one of them as the Loon I saw yesterday, by his injured beak.

They were paddling a little too fast for me, so I finally gave up and headed for the entrance. By now, the sprinkles had turned in to a downpour. But, it wasn’t cold, so I continued on. I made it all the way out to the entrance, and never saw anything worth shooting. I did get a good workout, however.

We’d just finished dinner when I looked out the window and saw a bear headed our way. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. He wasn’t close enough for really sharp photos, but I shot at 155X to 200X hoping I’d get something worth salvaging.

When he came to the point, he waded out into the water swam around the point to get to some rocks that might have some delectable goodies hiding beneath them.

Then, along came papa and mama bear and their two cubs. Papa bear ran ahead to the creek, where I couldn’t get a shot. But, mama and the two cubs kept heading my way. She didn’t see anything that interested her on the shore. Maybe the cubs hadn’t yet learned how to get at the goodies hiding under the rocks. They headed for the tall grass instead.

It isn’t foggy this morning, but it looks like there’s a strong possibility it might rain. I was paddling toward the head of the harbour when I spotted a female Goldeneye with three of her young ones.

While I was pursuing the Goldeneyes, another duck that I’ve never seen before landed on the water nearby. It appeared to have a tiny green spot on the wing.  When I checked my Audubon Field Guide, it confirmed that it was a female Green-winged Teal.

The Teal didn’t hang around long enough for more than this one photo. As I was deciding which way I wanted to paddle, I noticed something dark on shore. I figured it was just a dark rock, until it moved. Turned out it was a young bear foraging for whatever he could find to eat.

He was headed for a beautiful waterfall that I’d never seen before.

He finally ran out of shoreline and headed up into the trees.

On the way back to the boat I spotted this Kingfisher sitting on tree branch that was floating on the water.

And this single Loon who looked like he’d suffered some injury to his beak.

It’s even foggier this morning. However, by the time I set out paddling at 1030 hrs, it has subsided a bit. Higher high tide is at 1145 hrs, so I’m paddling later than usual. Unfortunately, the wind has come up. I wanted to check out an area I had to skip over yesterday because the tide was too low. After all these years, I’d never seen this particular cove. What a surprise to find two creeks! And, Al was wondering if salmon come into Captain Cove. Well, I saw four big guys right beneath my kayak.

The wind had come up to the point where there were white caps, so I decided I’d better head back to the boat before it really got ugly.

We’ve decided to move down to Newcombe Harbour this afternoon. The wind had died down, making for a pleasant cruise. We anchored in our usual spot that offers the most protection from any storms that might come up.

Pea soup fog is what we have this morning. I hate fog. But, I’ve always liked the effect fog has on light. Makes for interesting photos. So, I screw up my courage and head out, keeping the land on my right, sort of like bread crumbs.

The seagulls don’t like fog either, and are hunkering down, cleaning their feathers.

There are feathers everywhere.

As I got closer to the creek at the head of the inlet, the sun was starting to shine through the fog, highlighting the individual droplets of moisture, like a fine mist.

Unfortunately the tide wasn’t high enough to get very far up the creek, and the current was running faster than I was comfortable with.

I did manage to get a shot of a flock of Honkers. When they spotted me, they headed for the high ground.

I found a pair of scotters also, who led me on a merry chase. I never was able to get close enough for a decent shot.

Al called me on the VHF to tell me biscuits and gravy would be on the table in thirty minutes. Yippee! I figured I’d better get a move on, because the wind had come up and I’d be paddling against the incomming tide.

I paddled like my life depended on it and made it with 5 minutes to spare.

Well, it isn’t raining this morning, at the moment. We’ve decided to head south to Captain Cove, off Petrel Channel. We threaded our way back out through all the rocks just fine, but when we got to Edye Passage, we could see a big fog bank about a mile away, right in the direction where we were headed. So, Al throttled back and fired up the radar. With the AIS we could see a boat right behind us, called “Blue C’s”, traveling about 2 knots faster than we were. We kept watching him get closer and closer. Finally, he called us on the VHF. He asked us where we were headed and said he would stay well to port of us. That was comforting.

The fog lasted for about an hour and a half, with zero visibility at times. I was glad when the sun finally burned through just before we got to the Lawyer Islands. After that it was smooth sailing all the way to Captain Cove. I took this photo as we were turning in to Petrel Channel.

Shortly after dinner, we spotted porpoise feeding just off our transom. They were camera shy, unfortunately, but maybe they’ll be back for another visit.

It’s raining this morning, but the wind has subsided. When the rain turned to sprinkles I decided to go for a paddle. Secret Cove, which is just around the point is on the open ocean. Since there wasn’t any wind to speak of, I decided to venture outside to check out Secret Cove.

I could feel the liveliness of the water, which made me a little nervous, as soon as I reached the fairway. I hadn’t checked the tide tables, but thought that the tide was coming in. However, when I stopped paddling, the current was taking me out to sea. I saw some seals on a rock and wanted to get a shot of them, but the water was bouncing me around too much to focus.

By this time it felt like the current had increased, taking me out to sea at a pretty fast clip. Am I caught in a riptide? I turned around and paddled harder. The current wasn’t nearly as strong as the one I experienced at Wallace Bight, but strong enough to make me nervous.  Luckily I didn’t have far to paddle before I was out of the current and back in the safety of Welcome Harbour.

These shores must see ferocious winds in the winter. The trees look absolutely tortured.

Coming in to this area is very daunting because of all the rocks hiding just beneath the surface, unless you happen to arrive at a lower low tide. It’s a piece of cake with GPS and electronic charts, but if your computer crashed you would be in a world of hurt.

I thought that there would be lots of wildlife here. But, I paddled and paddled and never found anything until I was almost back to the boat, when I spotted this eagle in one of those tortured trees.

A pair of Kingfishers visited the boat off and on all day. They’d sit on our rail, looking for fish. Kingfishers must have incredible eyes, because the fish they’re after are teeny weeny. They apparently don’t like the heads, so they left the teeny weeny heads on the deck for us to dispose of.

With my blog finally uploaded and all our laundry and provisioning completed, we were ready to get back cruising.

We got to the fuel dockat about 0800 hrs.  It which was empty.  That was refreshing. You usually have to wait in line to get fuel. The attendant said poor fishing has killed their business. The salmon just never showed up in the numbers they usually do.

After taking on 170 gallons of diesel, at a price that made Al happy ($3.28 U.S. a gallon), we were underway for Captains Cove. We were so relieved that we didn’t have to deal with fog this morning, like we usually do in Prince Rupert. We had good visibility, and the wind was only blowing 9 knots at Holland Rock.

Unfortunately, the wind kept building, once passed Holland Rock, until we were getting 50-knot gusts! Time for a change of plans. We decided to alter course for Welcome Harbour, which was only 10 miles away.

Just before we got to Henry Island three Orcas surfaced right in front of the boat. I grabbed my camera and carefully worked my way to the foredeck to get some video of them. The wind was still blowing like stink, heeling us over at times like a sailboat. It was almost impossible to keep steady enough to get any good shots. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get something worth posting on YouTube. It was exciting, to say the least. The Orcas came right for us, like porpoise do. They were gorgeous.

We hadn’t been to Welcome Harbour in about 10 years. Thankfully, it was low tide, which made it easier to see all the rocks that line the circuitous route you have to take to get there. Once passed Henry Island, the wind settled down to about 30 knots, which wasn’t too bad.

This is a really beautiful wind-swept area, with old growth hemlock and cedars. I’m really looking forward to exploring it.

We’re really on a roll. When we awoke this morning, we found a repeat of yesterday’s weather — flat seas and no fog.

Our luck continued when we arrived in Prince Rupert at 1000 hrs and called the Prince Rupert Yacht Club hoping to get guest moorage, which is always scarce. We got right in!

I spent the next 4 days uploading my blog. To say the WiFi connection was fluky is putting it mildly. On the 5th day I went to the Yacht Club office to see if the signal would be better from there, and learned that there are 2 WiFi connections. So, when I connected to the other connection, PRRYC-UNI, uploading went a lot quicker. I’ll have to remember that for next year.

We spent our last day in Prince Rupert relaxing. Al even took me to dinner at the restaurant touted to have “the best halibut fish and chips in Canada.”

Bob’s on the Rocks is owned by Bob’s ex-wife, who wound up with the “restaurant” as a result of their divorce settlement. This place had glowing online reviews, and was recommended by the wharfinger. You place your order in the building pictured above. Then, they take your order over to a trailer and cook it. They have two picnic tables for your “dining” pleasure. One order, presented in paper boxes and consisting of two pieces of battered, deep fried, thinly sliced halibut, french fries, and a tiny cup of cole slaw carries a price tag of $19! Oh, well. It was an experience, and if we hadn’t tried it, we’d always regret not having halibut fish and chips at the famous Bob’s on the Rocks. We won’t be repeat customers, however.

On our walk back to the boat, I saw these boys enjoying this beautiful day fishing from the docks at Rushbrook Marina.  They looked like serious fishermen.

I also spotted this deer feeding on grass behind Grainger’s, right in downtown Prince Rupert.

Our friend, Roger Palmer asked us to check out the new marina that’s being constructed at the Atlin Terminal, right next to the Prince Rupert Yacht Club.

I spoke to a foreman on the job who says the marina will be finished by the end of this month! Hard to believe.

Were were up before the sun this morning, having decided to take advantage of a good weather window to move on up to Kumealon Island  Cove.  Al’s thrilled, because not only do we have beautiful flat seas, but we have a kick behind us, resulting from a  favorable current.

There’s a sailboat anchored in Kumealon Island Cove when we arrive, but within an hour they’ve pulled their anchor and headed out.  As the tide went out, Al discovered we only a 5 feet of water under us, so we reanchor and settle in for the night.